the sixth war
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The Sixth War
Contents
Introduction page 3
Literature review page 8
Research methodology page 11
3.1. Methods of data collection
3.2. Research questions
Results and discussion page 32
4.1. Main research question
4.2. Question 2
4.3. Question 3
Conclusion page 32
Bibliography page 35
A copy from the questionnaire page 36
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1. Introduction
n 12 July 2006, the Israeli army attacked Lebanon as they said because Hezbollah fired
Katyusha rockets and mortars at Israeli border villages, diverting attention from another
Hezbollah unit that crossed the border, kidnapping two Israeli soldiers and killing three
others, this war killed over a thousand people, most of whom were Lebanese; severely damaged
Lebanese infrastructure.
II chose this topic because it is am important political issue that happened and the history books
wont forget it, it is important to Egypt because Lebanon is an Arab country like Egypt and Israel
is Lebanon's enemy just like Egypt. This war was known in Lebanon as the July War and in
Israel as the Second Lebanon War, but without Hezbollah Lebanon would be in the hands of
Israel now, this war ended as Lebanon the winner despite Israel destroying their infrastructure
but Lebanon to be more specific Hezbollah made in the Israeli army a lot of destruction and it
won the war until the United Nations-made ceasefire between both of them which went into
effect on 14 August 2006, though it formally ended on 8 September 2006 when Israel lifted their
naval blockade of Lebanon.
On 12 July 2006, Hezbollah fighters kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah leadership
asked Israel for an exchange of prisoners. Instead of a proposal for negotiation – what Hezbollah
leadership had expected – Israel delivered a morning raid on Hariri International Airport in
Beirut the next day, followed in the afternoon by a raid on the Beirut-Damascus Highway. The
raids, while initially partially damaging their targets, were equally symbolic: Israel had started a
full-scale war on Lebanon, its infrastructure and its complex web of national and regional
relationships and networks. The war lasted for 34 days, leaving behind not another “New Middle
East”, as the American administration had hoped, but an even more volatile Middle East.
Between the declarations of a “Truthful Promise” of 12 July and that of “Divine Victory” on 22
September, the war bore no “birth pangs” but “bangs” of persistent and interconnected conflicts.
Thus, our choice of “The Sixth War” as title for this emergency issue is not a mere imitation of
al-Jazeera’s description of the latest war between Israel and Lebanon. The editors of this issue
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are convinced that, in both context and intensity, what happened between 12 July and 14 August
2006 (the formal end to hostilities) and 7 September (the end of Israel’s military blockade of
Lebanon) should appropriately be analyzed and understood as a sequence to and a consequence
of previous wars between Israel and its neighboring countries. Like most of Israel’s previous
wars, this was a war of choice passed off as a struggle for existence. The G8 meeting in St.
Petersberg, which coincided with the outbreak of the war, appeased Israel and offered a
diplomatic carte blanche on virtually all its military operations.
While there has been no shortage of media commentary and analytical essays that have tried to
make sense of this war, we believe that this MIT-EJMES emergency issue was needed for two
main reasons. First, it overcomes the superficiality and short-attention span that has characterized
much of the war’s print and television coverage in the media. There have been free-lance
journalists who braved Israeli aerial bombardments to break the silence on the dozens of
‘Guernicas’ across southern Lebanon. Where their stories made it into mainstream media they
were mere fig leaves to embellish the bare, one-sided structure of news. Likewise, anti-American
and anti-Israeli polemics simplify the complexity of the origins, causes and consequences of this
war, let alone its day-to-day operational aspects. Second, during the course of the war and
thereafter, it became clear to us that the actions, statements and decisions made by various
parties involved or engaged in the war were going to have long-lasting implications on several
countries of the Middle East, on the United States’ image in the Arab and Muslim world and
future dynamics of the “War on Terror”. Putting those actions, statements and decisions under
the microscope of independent professional analysts – long-term resident journalists, historians,
political scientists and social anthropologists
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Lebanon and the Middle East – avoids the multiple refractions in imperial policy-making
and media coverage.
Our emergency issue aims at putting together a range of analytical essays, grounded in
thorough empirical and conceptually sound research and tackling different facets of the war, in
one volume made universally accessible online to interested readership around the world. A
number of journalists and scholars, young and of older generations alike, based in the region and
abroad, trained in various academic disciplines and Middle Eastern languages, were invited to
draw on their intimate knowledge and research experience to present their analyses of the “Sixth
War”.
Israel’s casus belli was an extremely weak one indeed, and strongly suggests other
motives originating in both Israeli and U.S. government designs for the Middle East region that
has pushed the latter into turmoil. In a subsequent article, the outbreak of this war is closely tied
to the still unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the long-term effects of continuous Israeli
expulsion of Palestinians from their land.
Americana in the Middle East. This war (or to be more precise, this phase of the war)
ended 34 days later on 14 August with the coming into effect of United Nations Security Council
(UNSC) Resolution 1701, which aims at the “cessation of hostilities” in anticipation of a
permanent cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel.4
Two general observations may be made with respect to the military phase of this sixth
Arab-Israeli war. First, the war very quickly evolved into an Israeli-American operation once the
US decided to use what it saw as an “opportunity” to create a “new Middle East” following the
catastrophic results of its policies in Afghanistan and Iraq.5 The US consistently held Syria and,
indirectly, Iran responsible for Hezbollah’s actions, and tied any resolution to the conflict with
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Concerns about the regional implications in its “war on terror.” The US also
repeatedly rejected calls for a cease fire in order to allow Israel added time to
“punish” Hizbullah6, even after the 25 July Rome Peace Conference, where
Lebanon’s pro-US Prime Minister had pleaded for an immediate end to the fighting
and presented a “Seven Point Plan” to end the conflict.7 Indeed, Hezbollah’s leader
Hassan Nasrallah insinuated during the war that he considered Israel to be merely an
“obedient tool” of an aggressive US policy intent on re-drawing the political map of
the region, stating that “the Israelis are ready for stopping the aggression....it is the
United States which insists on continuing the aggression on Lebanon.”8 A poll taken
during the war confirmed that 90% of Lebanese not only believed that the US was
playing an active role in the war, but that it was “complicit in Israel’s war crimes
against the Lebanese people.”9
Second, despite putative military superiority and a compliant UNSC, Israel
failed to achieve its stated objectives—the release of the two Israeli soldiers captured
by Hezbollah during the border skirmish and the neutralization of Hezbollah—by
using force. Indeed, Hezbollah’s successful resistance coupled with Israel’s
increasingly desperate and violent tactics against civilian targets during the war
resulted in unprecedented popular support for Hezbollah and its leader Hassan
Nasrallah across the Arab world. Such popular sentiment in turn forced key Arab
League members such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt to ultimately, if reluctantly,
withdraw their initial support for Israel’s actions.10 Hezbollah’s successful resistance,
and therefore leverage, also ensured that Lebanon’s political capitulation, as spelled
out in the US-prepared draft resolution preceding 1701, was averted.11 The draft
resolution had been flatly rejected by Lebanon because it had ignored all the main
points contained in the Lebanon’s “Seven Point Plan” presented to the international
community at the 25 July Rome Peace Conference, and because it had called for an
“international force” under Chapter VII of the UN Charter which would allow the use
force as needed to “maintain peace and security.”
The failure of power politics to decisively resolve the dispute —both in terms
of Israel’s inability to secure a military victory over Hezbollah and the US’s inability
to use its hegemony within the SC to secure an unambiguous resolution in favor of
Israel—has thus heralded the inexorable return to center stage of UN diplomacy and
the debate concerning the efficacy of international law. The reason for this is that, for
all its apparent flaws, the UN provides the necessary authority, and therefore
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legitimacy, to interpret international law in order to resolve this dispute. As Alfred
Rubin argues, “power is not the bottom line, authority is.” To back his claim, Rubin
recalls the scene in Plato’s Gorgias, where Polus asserts that the ruler of the state is “a
man who can do what he pleases in the state…killing and banishing and having his
own way in everything.” Socrates responds to Polus in a mocking tone, “Suppose I
were to meet you in the middle of the morning with a dagger up my sleeve…Such is
the power that if I decide that any of the people you see around you should die on the
spot, die they shall.” For Rubin the notion that a “madman in the agora is the ruler of
the polity is absurd,” because to accept this is to live in a “nasty and brutish” world.12
Of course the use of force and violence can never be totally dispensed with in
international relations; however, in the absence of international rules grounded in
some form of state consent, a powerful player cannot hope to impose its authority
purely by force on the weaker entity, at least not in the long run. In other words, there
is an important distinction to be made between force and authority. To that end,
Israel’s failure to turn three decades of putative military superiority over, and several
invasions of, Lebanon into political gains and security—even with the backing of a
superpower--is precisely because it has failed to grasp that its disdain for the norms of
international law and UN resolutions have transformed it into a “madman” in the
agora.
This article will first review the evolution of the international law dealing with
the use of force, highlighting the perennial tension between, on the one hand, the
Westphalian principle of state sovereignty and, on the other hand, the ever-growing
consensus within the international community that the use of force must be regulated
in order to save the world from the Hobbesian condition alluded to by Rubin. The
article will then analyze Israel’s attacks on Lebanon in light of this body of
international law, showing clearly that Israel clearly violated the accepted norms
regulating the use of force and humanitarian law. It concludes that peace and security
can only come within the framework of a comprehensive and just settlement grounded
in international law.
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2. Literature review:
bdel Ghani said "Palestinians have always been the weakest link in
Lebanon, the scapegoat for the country's problems, Bombing a whole
camp in the name of rooting out a few fighters is another way of
subjugating Palestinians into accepting whatever schemes the world has for us,"( We
are victims again in Lebanon, Palestinians say).
A"I understand that the need to deal a blow to extremists and that they must be stopped.
But the way the army bombed the camp could only mean it wants the Palestinians to
sink into more misery," said Souad Haj Hassan, a mother of three children (We are
victims again in Lebanon, Palestinians say).
"I can't help thinking that the refugees we see fleeing on television will end up like
me, looking for another refugee camp to live in," Iskandar said(We are victims again
in Lebanon, Palestinians say).
"The army succeeded in showing that there are no red lines when it comes to
Palestinian lives," Souheil El-Natour, a Palestinian who heads the Human
Development Centre at Mar Elias (We are victims again in Lebanon, Palestinians say)
"We are greatly concerned about the latest violence and escalation in the Gaza Strip
and in parts of Lebanon," spokesman Jens Ploettner told a regular government news
conference. "I expect a discussion of this situation will be an important part of the
Quartet meeting, together with a coordination of efforts to bring about de-escalation
in the region."(Quartet to meet in Berlin amid Mideast violence)
"The army bombed everywhere. It targeted everything. Even the Israelis would
have been more merciful," said Rami Mahmud, a resident of Damoun -- a district in
the run-down camp where Lebanese troops had been fighting militants since
Sunday (Palestinians fume at Lebanese army after shelling).
"Bring in Ehud Olmert, please," (Palestinians fume at Lebanese army after shelling),
said Mahmud suggesting the Israeli prime minister would have shown more mercy
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towards the Palestinians than the Lebanese army, which has repeatedly said it has not
been targeting civilians.
Mahmud al-Hindi said "We have been huddled for three days like sardines, 60 in a
room, without water, communications or electricity, I remember when a Lebanese
army post nearby came under bombardment during last year's Israeli invasion, all of
the camp rushed to help. This is how they treat us?"(Palestinians fume at Lebanese
army after shelling)
A shell had blown a gaping hole in the house of 80-year-old Hajjeh Kamila, one of the
camp's first residents. She said "The whole family had assembled on the first floor. It's
a miracle no one was hurt. Our lives have been one catastrophe after another, how can
they ask us to disarm after they did this to us? Asked Jamila Ahmad, another refugee.
The Palestinians will not throw away their arms before returning to our
homeland."(Palestinians fume at Lebanese army after shelling)
In a statement issued after a meeting in Cairo, ambassadors from Arab League
member states said: "The Arab League council ... thanked Arab states which have
provided military assistance and equipment to support the Lebanese army and
security forces. It (the council) asserted the need to maintain this support by Arab
states, especially in the latest security conditions through which Lebanon is
passing,"( Arab governments promise military help for Beirut).
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa told a news conference later that "he
could give no details of any military assistance to the Lebanese government. But we
will continue to see how to help Lebanon and it depends on the developments. We
hope that a ceasefire ... would be very much in order and very much needed," he
added (Arab governments promise military help for Beirut).
"It's worth respecting when the enemy's premier forms a commission to investigate
the second (Lebanon) war, and it's even more worth respecting when the
commission assigned by Olmert convicts Olmert and uses harsh terms in
describing his performance and behavior during the war, "Today the climate in the
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whole of the Zionist entity is that this war was a failure" Nasrallah said in a speech
in Beirut's southern suburb (Hezbollah chief praises Israel for war commission).
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3. Research Methodology:
3.1 Methods of data collection
I depended on collecting my research data questionnaire upon the people around me including, my friends, students in the British University, the old friends and friends in my club my family father, mother, brothers, cousins and ect.…
Where the number of questionnaire I got it were 73 questionnaire I tended to distribute this questionnaire upon a big number of men as they are more interested in the political subject where number of men between all of this questionnaire were 56, number of women who answered were 17 and most of those who answered this questionnaire were from the British University their age were between 16 to 20.
3.2 Research Methodology
1. Is Hezbollah or Israel are planning for the war before?
Yes 55 no 12 don’t know 6
yes22%
no52%
don't know26%
Both of the sides were ready to enter the war any time but the issue of two
kidnapping soldiers was the key to begin this war because Israel and Lebanon
waiting the reason of the war since the first war 1981 and the violence never
stopped.
The kidnaps were Israel’s justification for implementing a long-planned
bombing campaign against Lebanon. If the redoubtable Seymour Hersh is to
be trusted, policymakers in the White House and Pentagon were actively
complicit in planning the Israeli bombing campaign some months before the
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12 July kidnaps. Seymour M. Hersh, “Watching Lebanon”, the New Yorker,
21 August 2006.
2. Do you think that the main reason behind the outbreak of the war was the
kidnapping of Israeli soldiers?
Yes 35 no 30 don’t know 8
yes48%
no41%
don't know11%
While the Israeli attack on Lebanon was supposedly begun to obtain the
release of two captured Israeli POWs, this was a military response so
antithetical to the “rules of the game” that have governed the conflict over the
Lebanon-Israel border since 1996 that it cast immediate doubt on the
relationship of the attack to those captured soldiers. And indeed, between July
12 and August 14, when the ceasefire under UNSC 1701 went into effect, the
stated Israeli reasons for, or goals of, the attack on Lebanon underwent
considerable change. Israel’s original rhetoric gave way to two stated goals:
the disarmament or at least “degrading” of Hezbollah’s militia, and the
“removal” of Hezbollah from Lebanon. Soon after, it emerged that “a senior
Israeli army officer” had presented plans for an offensive with these goals to
U.S. and other diplomats over a year before Hezbollah’s capture of the two
soldiers. The now well-circulated piece by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker
confirms these reports, and documents U.S. advance collusion with the Israeli
attack plan. This goal of “removing” Hezbollah, however phrased, from, first
Lebanon, then, as Israeli hopes that the Lebanese polity and populace would
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fracture and turn against Hezbollah were shattered, from the south of the
country, is one that treads dangerously close to ideas of depopulation.
In one of its earliest political declarations, Hezbollah affirmed its stance of the
continuality of the struggle of the Islamic resistance until the obliteration of
Israel, a notion upon which Hezbollah based and erected its entire military,
political intellectual and ideological resistance to the Israeli occupation. The
declaration stressed that the Zionist entity’s presence is illegal; it has no right
to exist, no right in the land of Palestine, and no Arab or Muslim has the right
to grant Israel any recognition or legitimacy.
It is important to note that Hezbollah’s “enmity is not towards Jews as a race
or religion, rather towards the Zionists who have raped Palestinian land and
established their Zionist entity.” However, Hezbollah “considers that there are
no Jews in Israel, rather only Zionists.” The party also maintains that “Israeli
society is a military society” and it “affirms that in Israel, it does not
distinguish between a civilian and a military…. that in Israel there are no
civilians.” Nevertheless, “Hezbollah stresses that the formula of equating
civilians to the military applies only to Israel, not outside its borders.”
3. Who was supporting Hezbollah?
The Middle East 5 Iran, Syria 49 by them self 19
Middle East7%
Iran, Syria67%
by them self26%
Public discourse in the West on the recent conflict between Hezbollah and
Israel stipulates exceptionally strong ties between Iran, Syria and the Party of
God. These claims demand a careful analysis. Two recently published books
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(Hamzeh 2004, Alagha 2006) are useful in disentangling the somewhat
spurious threads connecting this triad. These two volumes are especially
helpful in decoding the nature of the relations between the Islamic Republic
and Hezbollah.
In his book In the Path of Hezbollah, Nizar Hamzeh succinctly examines the
emergence of Hezbollah, its ideology, and organizational structure. Hamzeh
also looks at the Party’s social service activities, its “resistance” acts since its
inception, and its political role in Lebanon, especially after 1992. In contrast,
Joseph Alagha’s study, The Shifts in Hezbollah’s Ideology looks at the history
of the party and many related issues, especially Hezbollah’s linkages with Iran
and Syria; however, Alagha concentrates on the development of its ideology
since its emergence and until 2005.
When it comes to Hezbollah’s main doctrine, both authors have emphasized
the Party’s subscription to the Iranian theory of wilayat al-faqih or
“guardianship of the jurisprudent”, put forth by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
This subscription to the Guardianship of the Jurisprudent is the most
substantial evidence of an ideological connection between Iran and Hezbollah.
The modern political interpretation of the doctrine was established in the book
Islamic Government by Ayatollah Khomeini, where he sets out his theories
concerning the role of the clergy in government and society. It was under this
doctrine that Khomeini took power in Iran as Supreme Leader. However, he
did not originate the doctrine itself. Indeed, Khomeini “generalized the early
Ousuli arguments, which were designed to establish the legal and religious
authority of the Shiite mojtaheds, to eliminate the duality of religious and
temporal authority.”
Alagha explains how the concept was pioneered by Ali Bin Husain al-Karaki
(1465-1533), was elaborated by Shahid al-Thani (1506-1558), by Muhammad
Baqer Bihbahani (1706-1792) and by Ahmad Naraqi (1771-1829). The latter
“was the first to recognize the faqih’s right in political authority… [And] was
the first to stipulate that the political, religious, and social authority of the
Hidden Imam can be transferred to and vested in the faqih.” In the 20th
century, the leading marja’ (source of emulation) in Iran, Muhammad Hussein
Na`ini (1860-1936) “stressed wilayat al-umma ala nafsiha (the governance of
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the umma by itself) as a legitimate right in the period of the Greater
Occultation.” In the latter part of the twentieth century Ayatollah Khomeini
then “having firmly rejected the separation of religion and Politics … argued
that in the absence of the divinely inspired Imam, sovereignty devolves upon
qualified jurists or the Shiite religious leaders. It is, therefore, the religious
leaders, as the authoritative interpreters of the Sacred Law, who are entitled to
rule.” Alagha points out that “Khomeini’s contribution to wilayat al-Faqih lies
in the joining of the Imama (Imamate) and Wilaya in one person for the first
time after the Greater Occultation of the Twelfth Imam, which made possible,
in the absence of the Hidden Imam, the establishment of an Islamic order.”
The importance of the doctrine of the guardianship of the jurisprudent has
been dutifully noted by Nizar Hamzeh in the following statement: “seizing
upon Khomeini’s themes of obedience, Hezbollah leaders have always
pledged loyalty to Khomeini’s wilayat and to that of his successor, Ayatollah
Ali Khomeini.” This endorsement by Hezbollah of Khomeini’s concept is the
main proof of the existing linkages – at least on the ideological level—
between Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah-- especially as under the charter of
Hezbollah, “in case of a deadlock among members of the Shura council
[governing council], matters are referred to the wali al-faqih”. Hamzeh quotes
Sheikh Naim Qassim, the Deputy Secretary General of Hezbollah, “the
decisions of al-wali al-faqih are final, binding, and can’t be challenged.” After
all “the faqih, who like the Imam is infallible, is the only one who has the final
say in all executive, legislative, and judicial matters.” Indeed, in the case of
Hezbollah’s leadership, “the wilayat al- faqih doctrine and practice generate a
clerical leadership that has final say over the party’s decision making process.”
4. Who was supporting Israel?
America 31 United Nations 27 Europe 15
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America42%
United Nations37%
Europe21%
The U.S.-supported Israeli invasion of Lebanon merits high-level
inquiry and investigation as well as official denunciation and
mourning. The increasing attention paid to the consequences of official
deception in the manufacture of the rationale for war on Iraq, deserved
to be applied to the US- Israel war on Lebanon and Gaza. In early
September 2006 no such plans were in evidence, but internal
opposition to Washington’s claims had long been heard from a
minority of intellectual critics and scholars prepared to challenge
official claims, as did defense analysts and generals who disputed the
view that Hezbollah was nothing more than a terrorist group and an
Iranian dependency.
Both periods followed U.S.-supported Israeli invasions of Lebanon,
which were justified in similar terms by the Reagan and later, by the
G.W. Bush administrations. Then as now, the administration claimed
that its policies were critical to the protection of vital U.S. national
interests that included the protection of Israel and the support of
democracy in Lebanon. In both instances, developments in Lebanon
were linked to those in Damascus and the Gulf. In both periods, radical
Lebanese Shiites were suspected of harboring Iranian connections.
And then as now, public diplomacy was an instrument of public
deception designed to effectively mask Washington’s policies and
those of its allies in the region.
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Possibly the most far-reaching effect of Israel’s demographic
imperative is how it has shaped its relationship to the United Nations
and ultimately affected the UN itself. Israel has a long history of
ignoring Security Council (SC) resolutions related to territorial
withdrawal and the return of Palestinian refugees, and has even
formally announced its autonomy from UN authority.17 Israel has also
consistently rejected any suggestion that an international force might
assume responsibility for monitoring peace in southern Lebanon or the
Palestinian occupied territories. These stands have contributed to UN
weakness, as the US has consistently supported Israel prerogatives
through use of the SC veto.
With its unexpected defeat in its attempt to disarm Hezbollah,
however, Israel now needs precisely the intervention it has long
rejected: an effective international peacekeeping force on its border.
Israel’s real strategic goal in the war with Hezbollah was not precisely
to destroy or even necessarily disarm Hezbollah but to remove its
capacity to attack Israel at will. The last hope for this plan is UN
Resolution 1701, written primarily by the US with Israeli input, which
makes the entire international community responsible for this outcome.
But by enlisting the SC to serve Israel’s foreign policy agenda, first by
delaying the resolution and then through its wording, Israel has made
the UN not merely passive or ineffectual but complicit in its project of
preserving ethnic statehood. The effect on the UN has been a serious
loss of credibility.
5. Who was the winner in this war?
Israel 24 Hezbollah 47 none 4
17
Israel32%
Hezbollah63%
None5%
From the outset of Israel’s latest Lebanon war, two slogans, “Israel is
Strong” and “We Will Win,” mushroomed on bumper stickers,
advertisements, and billboards across the country. Sporting bold white
lettering against a blue background, the slogans articulated a message
of solidarity with a military campaign that did not go as expected. But
the signs’ wording betrayed a sense of anxiety: as war slogans go,
these do not exactly inspire confidence. The very fact that the regional
superpower needed to proclaim its strength indicated that right from
the start, many in Israel were not so sure.
In the early days of the fighting, when Israelis of all political stripes
were four-square behind their government, the war had not yet been
dubbed “Lebanon II.” It was instead a war on two fronts, in Lebanon
and Gaza, which were conjoined in Israel’s fight against a unified “axis
of terror and hate created by Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas,” in the
words of Tzipi Livni, Israeli vice prime minister and minister of
Foreign Affairs. Ben Caspit, one of Ma‘ariv’s leading columnists, put
it more colorfully: “Israel is dealing with radical, messianic Islam,
which extends its arms like an octopus, creating an axis from Tehran to
Gaza by way of Damascus and Beirut. With people like these there is
nothing to talk about. The fire of a war against infidels burns in
them.”1 The only fitting response in this situation is a military one,
claimed Ron Ben-Yishai in Yediot Ahronot, in order to “create a new
strategic balance between us and radical Islam.”2 This belief had wide
support among Israelis: the largest anti-war demonstration this summer
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turned out only 5,000-7,000 protestors, a number that pales in
comparison to the 20,000 people who participated in a demonstration
several weeks into Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
Radical Islam, however, was not the defining or unifying factor that
linked Israel’s southern and northern fronts: Hamas and Hezbollah had
different bones to pick with Israel. Hamas’ struggle is against
occupation, and more immediately, about how to achieve a mutual
cessation of hostilities and formalize, in one way or another, its right to
govern the territories of the Palestinian Authority as the Palestinians’
elected government. Hezbollah’s goals, at the outset of the fighting at
least, were more limited: to secure the release of Lebanese prisoners in
Israeli jails while simultaneously flexing the movement’s muscles to
stave off domestic and international pressure to disarm. By lumping
together these different struggles, and tying them to Damascus and
distant Tehran, commentators cast resolvable political disagreements
as unfathomable irrational hatred, thereby justifying Israel’s broad and
violent offensive.
Hezbollah, for its part, engaged in a conflation of its own. At the initial
press conference after the cross-border raid that Sheikh Hassan
Nasrallah said was long planned, Hezbollah presented its agenda as a
Lebanese one so as to avoid the impression that it was serving the
interest of others. But in choosing the moment of Gaza’s bombardment
to launch its own attack, the Lebanese Shiite movement subsumed the
struggle against Israeli occupation within a larger regional drama.
Displaying the rhetorical skills and military competence that Nasrallah
and his movement are known for, Hezbollah confirmed its position as
the only Arab force willing and able to stand up to Israel.
What links these conflicts, beyond Israeli fear-mongering and
Hezbollah’s use of Palestine as a chess piece is the future of limited
withdrawals -- what Prime Minister Ehud Olmert calls “convergence”
or “realignment” -- as an Israeli strategy for managing its conflict with
the Palestinians? By this plan, advanced by Olmert’s Kadima Party in
the March election campaign, Israel would move its soldiers and
settlers from much of the West Bank behind a unilaterally fixed
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“eastern border” for the Jewish state -- the walls and fences that Israel
is building through the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Yet even
before the recent conflagration, more and more Israelis, including
some within Kadima, had grown skeptical. Popular support for
withdrawals in the West Bank had plummeted to just over 30 percent
and Kadima luminaries Livni, Shimon Peres and Meir Sheetrit had all
expressed reservations. As the one-year anniversary of Gaza
disengagement approached, even the left-leaning Israeli press began to
ask, as did Ha’aretz, “Was it a mistake?”3 The Israeli government,
whose multi-partisan raison d’être is limited withdrawal, was under
pressure to demonstrate the fruits of its approach. With its two-front
war, the Israeli government set out to prove, emphatically, that
disengagement was not a mistake.
But if Nasrallah underestimated the vehemence of Israel’s response to
Hezbollah’s cross-border raid, Olmert miscalculated even more
severely. The Israeli army’s failure to achieve its objectives forced him
to backtrack on his convergence agenda and has imperiled his position
as prime minister and leader of the Kadima Party. The provisional and
tenuous unity of the center-left and center-right brought Kadima
qualified electoral success in March, garnering the support of the broad
Israeli middle that wanted to lay down the burdens of occupation
without paying the price of a mutually agreed, negotiated solution. But
in the wake of what is widely perceived as Israel’s failure in Lebanon,
the equation has been reversed: Olmert today suffers the disabilities of
the left but boasts few credentials from the right. Instead of holding out
the possibility of both political progress and military strength, as did
Sharon one year ago, the Israeli prime minister today offers neither to
his people. Cut from more cosmopolitan cloth than his predecessor,
Olmert has found himself drawn into an internal Israeli cultural clash.
By accident of political position and personal background, he sits at the
nexus of political, military, and cultural anxieties that have come
together in an existential malaise.
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6. Do you think that the figure of the undefeated army had been changed in front of
your eyes?
Yes 59 no 14
yes81%
no19%
The Israeli strategic military scale has a direct
relation with the concepts “greater Israel “and” the undefeated army" and also “the
military belief and theories" and” the absolute superiority “and” the deterrence
capability" and” influencing the consciousness" among them.
The occupation state has sought, since the Nakba of 1948, to produce its own version
around every war with the aim of affecting the consciousness of Israelis themselves
and occupy the Arab and Palestinian consciousness in particular in addition to
occupying the international consciousness.
This country has sought- throughout the past decades- to circulate a special version
that depict her as having a small, intelligent and strong army which is undefeated and
achieves fast sweeping victories over all Arab countries and armies.
But Hezbollah, according to all Israeli data in the core of all strategic calculations and
estimations, managed to change the Israeli amazing fast victories to a defeat that
burned the consciousness and the Israeli military concepts.
Accordingly, we can say that- contrary to their strategies, their plans and their security
concepts and contrary to their over self-confidence their military arrogance which is
based also on their air force superiority and their belief that they can make a swift
military victory in any military confrontation with any Arab side- Hezbollah
managed, during this Israeli aggressive criminal war, to turn the table against all
military calculations and estimations and dropping Israeli military concepts and
21
theories and even further proved the theory " influencing the consciousness" a failure.
Hence, all Israeli calculations overturned upside-down, and the Israeli military
estimations were crushed down, and the military concepts and theories collapsed; the
Israeli scene turned from a state of ecstasy and full self-confidence and deep-rooted
belief in having a sweeping and fast victory on Hezbollah, to a state of despair,
frustration and defeatism in front of Hezbollah that wasn’t weakened and did not
disintegrate, but it showed them more distress, powers and undefeated will.
Therefore, the last Hebrew year was, according to their calculations, the worst in the
Hebrew State history since its emergence in 1948.
This is not a mere prediction; it is an irrefutable great truth which became alive in all
Israeli houses and quarters; this war which Israel launched with premeditated
intentions and plans and led to a huge strategic defeat to " the greater Israel " and its "
elite army", is carved on history with its ensuing painful frustrating consequences on
the entire Israeli society.
The consequences of the Israeli defeat in Lebanon in front of Hezbollah spread and
expanded and affected all the military, media and political institutions and reached a
tough stage to the extent that they call them " Israel’s domestic wars " or " inter-
Jewish wars " or " the wars of Generals " or " the wars of the military intelligence
institution" or " the wars of the military institution against the political institution".
Also, one of the most prominent consequences of the war in the inter-Israeli conflicts
was those related to the historical great leaders in Israel. In this context, Eitan Haber,
the Director of the Bureau the former Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, and a
columnist in " Yediot Ahronot " has written in the newspaper, confirming that: " the
more the image of the war is clarified, the more we know how much it was tough and
savage; nothing at all on the military and civilian fields was prepared for the war for
making what is required in the battlefield".
Haber expressed his belief that: “the big crisis that Israel is facing now is the crisis of
leadership", concluding that “the age of great leaders has ended in Israel”.
Farther than that :", more than half the Israelis fear for the future of the country and
more than two thirds they expect a sudden military attack against Israel. Also, 70 %
lost their confidence in the leadership and 37 % prefer to migrate to outside Israel".
22
All this data are not exaggerated or falsified; it has been voiced by the Israeli public
opinion; the Israeli command that led the aggressive war on Lebanon is no more
enjoying confidence among Israelis; Israel is no longer a safe refuge according to a
third of the Israelis, and more than 70 % of the Israelis express their fully lacking
confidence in the political security image of Israel.
All this serious Israeli dangerous headlines were the outcome of the most important
and serious Israeli public opinion poll carried out by the Hebrew Maariv Newspaper
and published in its appendix on Friday 1/12/2006.
Accordingly, and in an attempt to contain this worst dimension, the Israeli Prime
Minister, Ehud Olmert, meant it when he launched his statement in front of the Israeli
Knesset in which he threatened with having another battle against Hezbollah; Olmert
declared very clearly: “We should guarantee that it will be so much better the next
time ".
Then, it was Israel’s image and its deterrent version that collapsed in this
confrontation with Hezbollah and it failed to improve it even in its crazy land
operations in the last days of war; it can’t according to its military belief and military
methodology accept such a defeat; this is because the stability and future of Israel is
based- according to its writings- on its superiority and its deterrent abilities.
Within the same deterrent context, a number of Israeli army and security experts are
still studying the consequences of the Israeli war on Lebanon which did not realize
any achievement; an Israeli military expert said: “Improving Israel’s image and its
deterrent force in front of the Arab world needs tens of years".
But this conceited military machine can't calm down for many years; it resorted to a
few escalations against Syria and Lebanon again; these few escalations are very
serious and they aren’t only restricted to covering the already committed and the next
massacres against the Palestinian people.
They aim also to restore the Israeli deterrent version, either through another military
battle against Hezbollah- the Israeli military estimations consider this only a matter of
time - or through a regional war that may include both Hezbollah and Syria, or
through a more strategic war that may target Tehran- the backbone of this axis, and
perhaps through an all-out Israeli war against Gaza first!.
23
The occupation state can’t- according to strategic calculations- calm down for forty
years or more as long as there are rebel Palestinian Arab people and there is a growing
resistance, and as long as there are Arab military capabilities that began to constitute a
strategic threat to the Hebrew State.
According to the Israeli and US indications, the plan of restructuring and rearranging
the Palestinian and regional state requires an all out war against the Palestinians- it is
under implementation since the operations " Protective Barrier", "Strict Plan", then
"Summer Rains ", and " Autumn Clouds" were launched.
Also, it requires another all out war in this region against Syria and Lebanon and it is
a matter of time, preparations and accurate strategic calculations and a matter of an
Arab and international atmosphere.
The Israeli correspondent and military analyst “Ben Kasbit” have spoken very clearly
also about the increasing clouds of war; he wrote in Maariv on 25/9/2006 about the
war drums, saying: “Golan Heights ", according to Ehud Olmert " will remain in our
hands forever".
" The sky is seemingly full of gloomy clouds, and the war drums are heard at the
background. Israel Prime Minister who speaks about " the Golan Heights " plays for
the war instead of making his citizens feel safe, the one hears so and does not
believe!” he adds.
The military institution didn’t- for its part- stop short of discussing this military trend;
the Israeli intelligence arenas predicted that “2007 will witness resuming the fight in
the northern front while the threat of what they called “international terrorism "
increases on (Israel). Hebrew newspapers on 14/9/2006".
It didn’t stop at this; the latest predictions of the Israeli Army General Staff stated that
“Syria and Hezbollah may launch a war against Israel in 2007" as documented by the
military columnist, Amir Ourn. Yediot on 6/11/2006.
The military predictions of the General Staff included: " while the lessons of the battle
in Lebanon in July-August this year haven’t been compiled yet, the General Staff
decided to freeze the multi-year planning for building up the military force, and
dealing with 2007 as a year of " a bridge ", that in its end only the new armament plan
is decided".
In such a preparatory military context, the reserve General "Yisrael Tal" demand " to
24
study a possible official commitment with The United States again, and although
there is currently a full security and political coordination between both countries, but
an official defense coalition between them will complete, for Israel, the deterrence
system that must be built around the country during the coming two years until the
next confrontation takes place” (Maariv Newspaper)".
The military preparations and the premeditated aggressive plans against the north are
not a spur of nowadays or a media story, but it is a very serious and dangerous story;
the US policy before Bush's era included Syria in the axis of evil and bears a strategic
enmity against it and seeks always to change its regime; the US administration
adopts- regarding this- the Israeli view towards Syria, and adopts the Israeli political
program towards peace with Syria; it also adopts the Israeli attitude in the issue of not
leaving the Golan!
Therefore, we say: What feeds the military plans and preparations, in addition to the
Israeli desire for restoring the broken deterrent prestige, may be that joint US-Israeli
attitude towards the issue of the Golan Heights.
The Hebrew newspaper Yediot Ahronot revealed, on 5/10/2006 in a report it
described as classified, under the headline " Israel must does not concede Golan
Heights ", a talk conducted by US President George Bush with a number of European
leaders in which he said: " it is no use to talk now with the Syrians around the Israeli
withdrawal from the Golan Heights; this is not the suitable time".
Add to this that “the Prime Minister Olmert declared clearly earlier- for his part- that
he prefers that Israel maintains controlling the Golan Heights (Yediot Aharonot
26/6/2006)".
A political correspondent of Haartz Newspaper confirmed again that the Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert and the US administration refuse for now including Syria in
any political course".
Therefore, as long as that the circumstances from the Israeli viewpoints are still not
ripe for holding negotiations and peace with Syria and as long as that both Bush and
Olmert prefer maintaining the Israeli control on the Golan, and as long as the most
important consequences of the Israeli defeat in the last confrontation in front of
Hezbollah was the collapse of the most important Israeli muths related to the air force,
deterrence and the army which is undefeated, and that "Israel" seeks, consequently,
more wars to restore through them what it lost in front of Hezbollah, then the minor
escalations of the Israeli war are practically rising and snowballing in the four fronts:
25
Iran, Syria, Palestine and Lebanon (Maariv 1/10/2006)".
To conclude, we can see- within the context of our strategic reading the data and the
scenarios of the aggressive Israeli war against us, we the Arabs should accordingly get
ready for another aggressive US- Israeli war in the near future because the status quo
won’t last for long; there is in Palestine a hot spot which may snowball due to the
occupation’s continuous destructive plans against the Palestinian rights.
There is- in Lebanon- a heavy defeat that the”undefeated” army was dealt and its
deterrent image was destroyed. There is- in the near future- a regional war whose
indications are increasing, especially in light of the developments and the increase of
the Israeli US owes in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine.
7. Did you think that Hezbollah could stand in front of Israel before the war?
Yes 8 no 57 don`t know 8
yes11%
no78%
don't know11%
Hezbollah, for its part, engaged in a
conflation of its own. At the initial press conference after the cross-border raid
that Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said was long planned, Hezbollah presented its
agenda as a Lebanese one so as to avoid the impression that it was serving the
interest of others. But in choosing the moment of Gaza’s bombardment to
launch its own attack, the Lebanese Shiite movement subsumed the struggle
against Israeli occupation within a larger regional drama. Displaying the
rhetorical skills and military competence that Nasrallah and his movement are
known for, Hezbollah confirmed its position as the only Arab force willing
and able to stand up to Israel.
26
8. Did you think before that Hezbollah to be armed by these heavy weapons?
Yes 22 no 51
yes30%
no70%
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9. Did you know how many rockets were fired by Hezbollah daily?
300 to 400 35 500 to 700 20 700 to 1000 18
300 to 40048%
500 to 70027%
700 to 100025%
Hezbollah "could launch between 1000 and 3000 rockets daily," its secretary general
Hassan Nasrallah claimed in an interview with a Dubai satellite TV station last week.
Nasrallah's comments were reproduced on Hezbollah’s Arabic language website on
Saturday, under the heading: "We could launch... 3000 rockets daily in a war in July."
Last week, the UN's Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, said he was disturbed by the
levels of arms being smuggled to Hezbollah via the Syrian-Lebanese border. Ki-moon
told the UN Security Council that evidence of the smuggling of arms was "detailed
and substantial."
During his interview, Nasrallah boasted that Hezbollah had amassed tens of thousands
of rockets since the war last summer, adding that the international UNIFIL force
stationed in southern Lebanon would be unable to stop Hezbollah from attacking
Israel.
"When I said Hezbollah possesses more than 12 thousand missiles and then I said that
we have more than 20 thousand rockets, this means that maybe we have 30 thousand
or 80 thousand rockets or maybe more," Nasrallah told the 'Qalam Rasas' program on
Dubai Satellite TV.
While Hezbollah fired between 300 and 400 rockets a day on Israel during last
summer's war, Nasrallah could now launch between 1000 and 3000 rockets daily, the
Hezbollah site quoted its leader as saying. "Nasrallah stressed that the resistance is
stronger today than before and can fight better than last year," the website said.
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10. Do you think that a new war will outbreak in the next summer?
Yes 54 no 9 don`t know 10
Yes74%
No12%
don't know14%
There will be a war next summer. Only the sector has not been chosen yet. The atmosphere in the
Israel Defense Forces in the past month has been very pessimistic. The latest rounds in the
campaigns on both fronts, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, have left too many issues undecided, too
many potential detonators that could cause a new conflagration. The army's conclusion from this
is that a war in the new future is a reasonable possibility. As Amir Oren reported in Haaretz
several weeks ago, the IDF's operative assumption is that during the coming summer months, a
war will break out against Hezbollah and perhaps against Syria as well.
At the same time, the IDF does not anticipate a long life for the cease-fire achieved last Saturday
night with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. When the present tahdiya (lull) joins its
predecessors that fell apart - the hudna (cease-fire) of summer 2003 (which lasted for a month
and a half) and the tahdiya of winter 2005 (which was in its death throes for months until its final
burial at the end of the disengagement) - there is a danger that the big bang will take place in
Gaza. At its conclusion, like a self- fulfilling prophecy, IDF soldiers will return to the heart of
Rafah for the first time in 13 years.
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Of the two worrisome scenarios, the IDF speaks more in public about a
conflagration in Gaza, but is also genuinely worried about a war in the
North, mainly in light of the army's dubious achievements in the
previous round there. Deputy Chief of Staff Moshe Kaplinsky has
recently spoken about a war in the North in the summer, in several
closed military forums. The army is already undergoing an intensive
process of preparation, which is based in part on lessons already learned
from the second Lebanon war. The announcement this week of a
renewal of reservist training at the Tze'elim training base is a signal to
neighboring countries that the IDF is reinforcing and rehabilitating
itself, but it was also meant for internal consumption: It broadcasts to the
public and to the army that the process of post-war rehabilitation is
being conducted with the requisite seriousness.
Do all signs lead to war? One senior defense official says the answer to
this question is no. He says that what we are dealing with is more a
question of image than of substance. The extremist assessment of the
good chances of a conflict in the North is designed to present the army
with a target (and more important, with a target date). By summer
preparations will be completed, and the IDF will brush itself off and
restore the professional capability that it mistakenly thought it had when
Israel so hastily went to war last summer.
The process of rehabilitating the army's preparedness is combined with
efforts by Chief of Staff Dan Halutz to present the investigation of the
recent war (which is supposed to end in about two weeks) as his
crowning achievement. In spite of his denials, Halutz is seriously
considering resigning, but is looking for the proper context. The
conclusion of the inquest, which Halutz describes as the most thorough
and honest that the IDF has ever conducted, is likely to provide such a
context. The chief of staff can say that he is leaving his successor with a
clean desk and that after comprehensive rehabilitation, the army is once
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again on the right path.
In view of the risk of war against Syria, chief of Military Intelligence
Amos Yadlin is talking about Israel's obligation to examine the
possibility of renewing peace negotiations with Damascus. In this,
Yadlin is joining his predecessor, Major General Aharon Ze'evi Farkash.
And like his own predecessor, Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert is also reacting with displeasure to this talk, and wondering
aloud whether the head of MI is not exceeding the bounds of his
authority. Nevertheless, at least in the Lebanese arena, Olmert recently
reexamined the possibility of compromising with the Siniora
government on the question of the Shaba Farms (Har Dov). With or
without any connection, a UN team has begun a project to map the area
in order to decide on the size of the controversial region. The mapping
work is being done at UN headquarters in New York, on the basis of
maps and satellite photos.
Olmert has been told that there is little chance that Syria would agree to
an arrangement in which Israel would transfer this area to Lebanon.
According to this assessment, Syrian President Bashar Assad is not
enthusiastic about the possibility. When proposals for a remapping of
the Syrian-Lebanese border were made to Assad, he replied that he
would agree to that only if it began in the area of Tripoli in the north. In
other words: as far as possible from the Shaba farms.
31
4. Results and discussions
4.1. The main question:
1) What is the main reason of the war between Hezbollah and Israel?
Supporting question:
1) What was the target Israel wanted from Lebanon?
2) What is the benefit that Israel gains from this war?
3) Who started the war?
4) Will be another war next summer?
5) Who equipped Hezbollah with weapons?
6) Will they exchange the Captives?
5. Conclusion:
srael’s recent aggression in Lebanon, still simmering in its first fragile ceasefire
at this writing, is now routinely called a “war”. The term is apt, given the scale
of events, but its use is nevertheless significant. This conflict was not between
two states, the usual meaning of “war”. Nor is it a “guerrilla war” in the usual sense
—guerrilla resistance to a state’s government or military within the state’s territory, as
presently is happening in Iraq. Indeed, from Israel’s perspective, its attack was never
meant to be a “war”. Israel and the United States clearly anticipated a swift unilateral
aggression that would eradicate Hezbollah’s military capacity with days (thirty-five,
in one estimation), approximating the speed and success of Israel’s invasion of
Lebanon in 1982. The venture was designed and expected to be a one-sided bombing
campaign with little risk to Israel, taking NATO’s bombing of Kosovo as its model. In
the event, the venture “failed”. But failure has altered only the means, not the goals,
of Israel’s larger strategy, which is driven by its ethnic imperative and will remain
largely unchanged as long as that imperative endures.
I
32
Consequently, Israel’s demographic doctrine is the proverbial elephant
on the table. Far from an ideological or even moral question, that doctrine
must be addressed as matter of international security, as it is central to Israel’s
realist geopolitics. The logic boils down to linked contingencies:
Israel cannot sustain a Jewish majority without excluding the
Palestinians from citizenship.
It cannot exclude the Palestinian population from citizenship within the
state in apartheid-like conditions without confronting their eventual
insistence on citizenship.
It cannot fix its permanent borders in ways that consign the
Palestinians to autonomous (yet unviable) cantons without committing
serious human rights abuses and generating violent Palestinian
resistance.
It cannot muster sufficient domestic Jewish-Israeli support for creating
the cantons as long as the Palestinians are resisting it.
It can neither repress Palestinian resistance nor reassure the Jewish-
Israeli public while Hezbollah is positioned on its border with a
significant arsenal and links to Hamas.
It cannot eradicate Hezbollah and Hamas (or any similar groups that
may arise) until their sources of support (Syria and Iran) are also
eliminated.
Hence Israel’s ethnic imperative to maintain a Jewish state necessitates
its program of regional aggression. The imperative has already inspired
Israel to demolish much of Lebanon and now pose an imminent threat
to Iran. It is even arguably dangerous to Israeli security, as it is
galvanizing unprecedented degrees of threat to Israel. The only interest
it serves is ethnic statehood — which is not only anachronistic in
today’s world but is demonstrating, as it does everywhere, its inherent
propensity to violence.
Ethnic demographic is certainly not the only factor driving Israeli
foreign policy: the variables noted at the beginning of this paper are all
relevant, if some exist only as imagined identities or emerge from
racial stereotyping. But their study distracts from the underlying
33
problem. Only by addressing the originating logic of Israel’s
geostrategy — Zionist dedication to preserving a Jewish-ethnic
majority in a land holding an equal number of non-Jews — can the
determinants of violence be unmasked and, with care, dismantled.
The task for international intervention is therefore dual: (1) to impose
international human rights standards on Israel in the urgent interests of
international stability; and (2) to create (or compel) a process of
consultation and negotiation that can adequately allay Jewish-Zionist
fears about what will befall Jews if the Jewish state morphs into a
secular democracy. The South African experience has much to say
about appeasing an aggressive ethnic nationalism through negotiation
and compromise. The international community will, however, have to
muster the necessary political will to orchestrate a workable process —
not out of humanitarian concern for the Palestinians (a motive that has
proved demonstrably inadequate), but in the interest of collective
security.
34
Bibliography
Arab governments promise military help for Beirut (2007),
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL2272445120070522, May 22, 2007.
Oweis K.Y. (2007), we are victims again in Lebanon, Palestinians say,
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL2338225120070523, May 23, 2007.
Quartet to meet in Berlin amid Mideast violence (2007),
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL2331932020070523, May 23, 2007.
Hezbollah chief praises Israel for war commission (2007),
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL0237765520070502, May 2, 2007.
The MIT Electronic Journal Of Middle East Studies (2006)
http://web.mit.edu/CIS/www/mitejmes/MITEJMES_Vol_6_Summer.pdf
Hebrew newspapers (2006),
http://www.jnul.huji.ac.il/dl/newspapers/eng.html, September, 14, 2006
Nawwaf Al IZru, Aljazeera, Occupied Palestine (2006)
http://www.ikhwanweb.com/Home.asp?
zPage=Systems&System=PressR&Press=Show&Lang=E&ID=5853, Friday,
December 08, 2006
Yaakov Lappin (2007)
http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3399399,00.html, 05.13.07
Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff (2006)
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/794993.html , December 07, 2006
35
7. A copy from the questionnaire
Personal information
Age between:
16 to 20 20 to 25 25 to 30 over 30
Gender:
Male Female
Questionnaire
1. Is Hezbollah or Israel are planning for the war before?
Yes No don’t know
2. Do you think that the main reason behind the outbreak of the war was the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers?
Yes No don’t know
3. Who was supporting Hezbollah?
36
The Middle East Iran, Syria 49 by them self 19
4. Who was supporting Israel?
America United Nations Europe
5. Who was the winner in this war?
Israel Lebanon none
6. Do you think that the figure of the unloosed army had been changed in front of your eyes?
Yes No
7. Did you think that Hezbollah could stand in front of Israel before the war?
Yes No don`t know
37
8. Did you think before that Hezbollah to be armed by these heavy weapons?
Yes No
9. Did you know how many rockets were fired by Hezbollah daily?
100 to 200 500 to 700 700 to 1000
10. Do you think that a new war will outbreak in the next summer?
Yes no don`t know
Thanks………
38
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